Roy Hay

In what must be one of the sweetest victories of his fledgling coaching career, Kevin Muscat masterminded a two-nil win over the defending champion Guangzhou Evergrande in the Asian Champions League at Docklands on Tuesday night. Resting Archie Thompson and Nick Ansell, being without Tom Rogic through injury and Gui Finkler through an earlier decision, Muscat fielded a very young side, but they did him proud.

Mark Milligan and Kevin Muscat had vital roles in the triumph over Guangzhou

Victory struck inside two minutes when skipper Mark Milligan and Kosta Barbarouses exchanged passes leaving the midfielder clear in front of goal and he calmly placed it past Zeng Cheng, the visiting keeper. Barbarouses should have doubled the lead when he had another one-on-one with the goalie but somehow hit him on the legs. Thereafter the two keepers were the stand-out performers as they repelled a series of attacks in what was a very open game. Victory had some good possession at times but the final ball was often delayed or wayward, while Nathan Coe threw his body at attackers and their shots to keep a clean sheet.

Adrian Leijer was heavily tackled and had to limp off with what looked like a serious foot injury. He was replaced by Leigh Broxham, who took up the central defensive role alongside Pablo Contreras who was his usual mixture of coolness and heart-in-the-mouth defending. One header off the goal-line was vital late in the first half.

Victory fans were becoming restless as the visitors piled on the pressure in the second half. The one-goal lead looked very precarious, but Coe and his defenders somehow managed to keep Guangzhou at bay. For a team which finished the A-League season with a negative goal difference this collective effort deserved great praise. When the keeper was stranded for once, it was Jason Geria who rescued Victory as he threw himself in the way of a shot by Muriqi.

World Cup winning coach, Marcello Lippi had played all his cards, even removing his skipper Zheng Zhi for Mei Feng at half-time, while Muscat was able to bring on fresh legs at the death with Andrew Nabbout and Jordan Brown getting a run in place of Connor Pain and Jesse Makarounas. It seemed that Victory would have to hang on to preserve its single-goal advantage but as stoppage time began, they mounted an attack down the left. When the ball came across quickly James Troisi outran a tiring defence to score from close range. The striker was booked for his bare-chested celebration but by that time he could have walked on water as far as the fans were concerned.

There was an excellent crowd, with half the lower level at Docklands decked out in red as the visiting Chinese and local Chinese-Australian fans turned out in force. Around where I was sitting there were many more not sporting the colours and for once the Victory support was outshouted at times. Everyone connected with FFA is hoping that the game in this country will attract large numbers of ‘away’ supporters from Asia and from those who have settled here, permanently or temporarily. This was one of the first occasions when the hopes were realised.

Roy Hay

Melbourne Victory qualified for the group stage of the 2014 Asian Champions League with a hard-fought two-one win over Muangthong United from Thailand at Kardinia Park in Geelong in front of 8,304 fans. It was an open game with both teams creating a missing a host of opportunities. Both keepers pulled a string of excellent saves, though both would rue the goals that beat them.

Victory and Muangthong teams line up at Kardinia Park before their ACL qualifier.

Victory started as if it would steamroller its way to a result. James Troisi got clear down the left in the second minute but his cross was just too high for the leaping Kosta Barbarouses at the back post. Skipper Mark Milligan coming back after leg surgery was taken down in a severe tackle on the edge of the home penalty area, and was somewhat proppy for a while thereafter and mightily surprised that no free kick was given. Barbarouses was tripped on his next excursion into the final third, but the free kick had no result. Nick Ansell was booked for an offence in midfield, so both sides were taking things seriously.

The visitor won their first corner kick after 21 minutes. Macedonian winger Mario Gjurovski sent an inswinger towards the near post and Piyathon Buntao jumped in front of Scott Galloway who was unsighted on the near post. So he hardly got off the ground and being small the ball passed directly over him and into the net with Nathan Coe stranded in the middle of his goal. It was a soft one to lose.

Coe made amends with a strong save when Inyin Anuwat’s deflected shot might well have added to the visitor’s advantage. He also denied Milan Bubalo when the Serbian striker broke through the Victory defence.

The Japanese referee Masaaki Toma added one minute to the first half and Archie Thompsons was brought down in the area for a penalty kick. The referee drew a red card but then replaced it with a yellow for Pyathon Buntao. Mark Milligan’s penalty was saved near his left hand post by the visiting keeper, Visanusak Kaewruang.

Victory fans take over Ablett Terrace at Kardinia Park.

Victory began the second half chasing parity but Coe had to bring off another critical save to deny Teerasill Dangda who was clear through on goal. Tom Rogic powered a shot just over the bar at the other end, and then Coe was back in action to block Bubalo’s shot once again. Finally Victory managed to turn its good midfield play into an incisive move. Fifty-eight minutes had passed when lovely sweeping series of passes found Scott Galloway overlapping on the right. He lifted the ball into the space in front of the keeper for James Troisi to head the equaliser.

The momentum was now with the home team but Muangthong brought on Jay Boothroyd in attack showing that they had no intention of settling for a draw, though they tried to break up the Victory rhythm by delaying play. It looked as if extra-time was going to be needed when Victory got its second goal.

Archie Thompson was through on the left but the keeper saved at the expense of a corner. When that came over Mark Milligan powered in a header but the keeper saved that too. The second corner was knocked back in the direction of midfielder Leigh Broxham who thrashed it goalwards. Whether it would have beaten the keeper is debatable but defender Thitipan Puangchan threw himself at the ball and deflected it past his keeper for a goal which takes Victory to the champions league. In injury time the Muangthong skipper Datsakorn Thonglao clashed with the Victory’s second scorer, Broxham, and was sent off by the referee.

Caption for featured image.

Muangthong goalscorer Mario Gjurovski is surrounded by Melbourne Victory players.